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How A Custom Personal Identification Card Can Keep Your Child Safe

The safety of your child should never be taken for granted. One of the ways that you can ensure that your child stays safe at all times is to make use of a custom ID card. The stories of how children get missing easily are enough to take the necessary steps to keep them protected and this should top the list. Child ID cards ensure that your child has important information at every point in time no matter where they are and it can help you to have peace of mind with the knowledge that no matter what happens, your child can be safe.

Making use of customized personal identification cards for your kids is a brilliant idea for every parent and you will find a reputable ID card maker to come up with great ID cards that children can use. Also, child ID cards are very affordable and are, also, durable. Consider some ways in which your child’s custom id can protect them –

Abductions

Having a child ID card can help to protect your child from being abducted from their schools as it will be very easy to identify them. Yes, a custom ID card has been recommended by the police as it helps provide the information that will be needed to contact you in case your child gets abducted.

Medical safety

Since you will not spend all the time with your child, what do you do if they run into medical emergencies in your absence? With a child ID card, you can keep very important medical information that will help to immediately administer urgent care, thus, guaranteeing medical safety for your child in an emergency.

Missing child solutions

A lot of children happen to wander and get missing and you do not want this to happen to your child. This is one of the most horrible experiences that a parent can have and a custom ID card for your kid can go a long way to solving this problem. There are customized fields where you can add all the necessary information such as your contact address, residential address, or any other info that you consider vital to the safety of your child. Also, these cards come in different designs and a wide variety of options. Check out our fully customizable online id card maker.  

Safety in large crowds

Imagine going to see again with your children where there are tens of thousands of passionate fans there to enjoy the game. As you make your way through the crowd with your child, you suddenly lose hold of your child in an instant and cannot find them. Where do you begin to search for a child among so many people? There have been lots of experiences like this and, as a parent, not having an idea of where your child is even for a minute is very despairing. In fact, it is a nightmare. Losing your child may not only occur as a result of negligence. Even the most brilliant of parents can lose their children anywhere and at any point in time regardless of how vigilant they are, especially, in large crowds.

Well, thanks to customized personal identification cards. If you happen to be in the midst of large crowds with your children, then, having a custom ID card for them can help to immediately get them back with the information on the card if they get lost.

There’s a lot that a custom ID card can do for your child. So, take steps to get one today to ensure their safety at all times.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/how-a-custom-personal-identification-card-can-keep-your-child-safe/

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Diesel Bumpy Ride

Passenger car in the United States never had luck with diesel engines and the last attempt to change the tide resulted to what it seems a global reverse of enthusiasm towards this kind of propulsion. Is compression combustion passenger car really in a death row at this point with the gas engine following closely and electric vehicles stepping up to the throne? Or maybe not so fast.

It’s hard to imagine the press for diesel to be worse these days. More and more towns and cities set deadlines after which cars using this kind of engine won’t be allowed. Car manufacturers follow with statements on how they stop developing the technology, they will do it in the near future or have already set the date for the last diesel call to roll out of the assembly line. How did we get here so quickly from the peak of interest in this highly efficient technology  during the times when the price of a barrel of crude oil was flirting with $150 level?

Diesels never managed to get a lot of traction with just 4% share in the US market of passenger cars and light trucks according to the Department of Transportation data https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/bts_fact_sheets/oct_2015/html/figure_01.html. Even with gas price reaching past $4 per gallon more than once in the past 10 years the change of interests among car buyers turned more into hybrid and smaller gas engines than diesels. Europe car market in the contrary is a whole different animal with the compression combustion engine car figures often exceeding gas powered vehicle sales according to Eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Passenger_cars_in_the_EU data. This ratio was pretty much the same through the modern automobiles ages. Let’s take a look td the factors contributing to such a discrepancy between US and European markets.

Consumer decision process in passengers car consists of two components, practical and emotional, both contributed to uneven diesel distribution among the markets. United States drivers enjoy relatively inexpensive fuels especially when compared to their European counterparts mainly due to taxation level. US government imposes federal and state taxes for gas and diesel; while the federal tax is fixed the state one varies so the price level is different between the states. Still the tax component of the fuel price hardly ever goes over 25%. In Europe the situation is quite different; a combination of different tax fees apply to various fuels. VAT (value added tax), fuel tax, excise (luxury goods tax) and recently more often some sort of emission fee applies to each car fuel. In result it’s not unusual for taxes to contribute to over 50% of the final price of the liquid fuel for the internal combustion engines. In order for some of the European industry branches to stay competitive special tax breaks apply to certain diesel usage like for example in United Kingdom agriculture and construction equipment use far less taxed fuel. This kind of diesel is colored with red dye in order to mitigate the risk of tax fraud schemes. The bottom line is that when compared to the US the gas station prices in Europe needs to be multiplied by 2 to even 3 times depending on the country. As shocking as it may sound for those who never had to buy gas or diesel in Europe the fact of the fuels being more expensive alone doesn’t explain the great difference in compression combustion engine application advantage in Europe. In order to explain diesel augmented share we need to dig a little deeper into technology of heat engines. Each internal combustion engine regardless of fuel type transforms heat energy into the kinetic one but that happens with losses as it’s impossible to transfer the entire heat produced by burning hydrocarbon fuel into movement energy. Some of the energy remains in the form of heat. Current diesel engines efficiency can reach up to 50 percent while gasoline power plants have hard time reaching 40%. Engine efficiency is the key in understanding diesel strong presence in European car market. While diesel fuel might be just as expensive as gasoline lower quantities are used to generate the same amount of power resulting in better overall economy.

Diesel engines are just as efficient in the US as anywhere in the world one may say. This is true but when combined with higher vehicle sticker price (diesels are more expensive to manufacture due to engine mechanics complication level difference) the lower fuel price is not enough to offset that difference as it in Europe. Moreover car purchase decision is almost never entirely rational process and diesels are anything but romantic or sexy. The loud clunking noise at idle and up to around mid 2000s puffs of thick, black smoke upon cold start or under heavy load cannot be considered as favorable contributing factors towards purchasing a motor vehicle in passenger segment. Design engineers have never given up the idea of bringing compression ignition power plant to compete head to head with its gasoline counterpart.

Common rail system was a new chapter for the Diesel engines that unfolded in the 1990s and become standard in 2000s. The basic concept of pumping fuel separately for each injection event was replaced with a solution providing highly available fuel under high pressure. Having fuel under pressure available at all times an engine can take advantage of using multiple injections during a single work cycle. This change has proven to be revolutionary for the compression ignition engine. The loud knock sound coming from the older diesels takes its origin from the fact that the fuel mixture ignition happens at a very rapid pace. In order to address that issue the passenger car manufactures tried various solution including a pre-combustion chamber between the injector and combustion chamber but each of these solutions had side effect such as poor performance and difficult cold start during winters. Having common rail on your side the solution become simple all of the sudden, a pilot portion of fuel injected prior to the main phase caused the ignition process to be far less violent resulting in significant noise level reduction without compromising performance. Moreover noise reduction was just the beginning of the common rail revolution. Next came the turbocharger which makes diesel engines effectively supercharged since the direct fuel injection into the combustion chamber was in place already; which naturally results in high performance specifications. Next came the visual tuning handled by a diesel particulate filter or DPF for short. Soot is the primary factor responsible for the thick black smoke in compression ignition engine exhaust fumes. Around 2005 DPF became standard in most diesel cars virtually eliminating the ugly black smoke from the image. These filters operate in a fairly simple fashion in most cars. A set of tiny screens catch soot particles separating it from the combustion produced smoke. Once certain level of soot accumulation in the filter is reached the computer running the engine allows for higher exhaust temperature which allows for DPF regeneration once the soot burn rate is achieved. This simple scheme has some weak points however. Soot burn heat is hard to achieve in idle RPM levels or during bumper to bumper traffic. The driver has only so much time to get the engine to the right power level once the DPF maintenance control light illuminates. If the DPF regeneration doesn’t occur within a specified period of time a permanent damage to the filter occurs resulting in a need for costly repair.

It felt like by mid 2000 diesel might had it all, the performance, noise, emission and image under control. It certainly did, except the standards have changed quite a bit. All these great improvements addressed the issues as we knew them in 1980. 2005 was whole another world. By 1990 it was widely known that nitrogen oxides, particularly nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide have devastating effect on the atmosphere and air pollution. Often referred as NOx, nitrogen oxides have capacity of causing acid rains and forming nitric acid in reaction with ammonia. These highly toxic chemicals have capacity to react with wide variety of other elements creating mixtures hurting lungs and deforming DNA.

NOx can’t form in ambient temperatures and the only way they form naturally is during a lightning strike when high temperature and high pressure conditions occur briefly. While lightings may feel as common meteorological phenomenon they can’t be considered as a major contributor to the NOx present in the lower parts of the atmosphere wherey they matter for organic life health. Scientists led by Lesley E. Ott have estimated annual lighting NOx contribution at 8.6 million tons while combustion emissions resulting from fossil fuel combustion are estimated at 28.5 million tons http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2009JD011880/pdf. While it may seem that the lightings are responsible for nearly 25% of the NOx production it needs to be noted that over 90% of the lighting formed NOx remain 15 thousand feet above Earth surface and all combustion related NOx stay close to the ground.

NOx issue is another example when the same problem is far easier to solve when it comes to gasoline engine as opposed to compression combustion one. Three-way catalytic converter introduced widely in early 1990s helped reduce NOx in the gasoline engine exhaust gases by reducing NOx to nitrogen and oxygen. Unfortunately for diesel engines the same recipe cannot be used due to the fact that diesel exhaust gasses have much higher oxygen content comparing to its gasoline counterpart. Therefore any potential NOx reductant would first react with oxygen. Another way of reducing NOx had to be found. Chemical scientist engineers offered 2 potential ways of dealing with the problem. One was injection of urea into exhaust gases which helped to reduce NOx to nitrogen and water. Multiple patented urea solutions have been developed, AdBlue and BlueTec would be the examples of this approach. The other solution is the exhaust gases recirculation valve, commonly referred as EGR. Used for a while in spark combustion engine found its way to help reduce NOx levels in diesels. Since diesel operate under abundant air conditions (there are no air throttles in diesel engines) EGR helps reduce the peak ignition temperature by reintroducing some of the exhaust gases back into the combustion chamber. This solution doesn’t require urea tank and refills but has limitations of its own. Reduced combustion temperature during the power stroke means power decrease. It further reduces power by creating back pressure during exhaust stroke. Additionally exhaust gas recirculation doesn’t help engine lubrication which increases risk of premature component failure. VW emission scandal has shown just how difficult the NOx reduction could be.

It broke out from the best intentions of West Virginia University scientists trying to understand how German engineers managed to develop clean diesel technology which could help fuel economy of cars in the United States. Keep in mind it was 2014, when gas station fuel prices over $4 per gallon was considered normal and every way to reduce consumption could be worth exploring. Unfortunately, no miraculous solution was found and VW admitted in September 2015 to introduce test cheating software. It seems like diesel future has been sealed back then; in passenger cars anyway. While the emission scandal involved relatively low number of vehicles the bad world has spread on all compression combustion engines. The bottom line is that it’s very hard for diesel engine to provide great performance, fuel economy and meet strict emission standards at the same time. Even though clean diesels do exist, remain majority the term itself sounds more like an insult these days than a catchy marketing slogan. Nobody driver wants to wear emission cheater id badge.

Declaration of manufacturers to stop developing diesels and cease production by this or that year combined with announcements that many towns won’t allow diesel cars can’t help encourage prospective buyers. Is this the end of compression combustion engine? I’m always careful to support such big words as the fate of each solution depends on many factors. Sure, the time to market diesels couldn’t be worse but dust always settles eventually even after the biggest storm. What kept diesels alive for very long time, which is better efficiency ratio vs gasoline engine is not going anywhere. Electric cars if they prevail will eradicate both internal combustion engine types but if they fail many would look back for another efficient solution and I wouldn’t be surprised by a cool headed conclusion there was nothing wrong with the diesel to begin with, you just need to develop it one step a time.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/diesel-bumpy-ride/

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Abu Dhabi Police Receive New ID badges

Police of Abu Dhabi received new ID cards today. The badges feature a new emblem with a gold falcon holding two daggers, circled by a red ring with white palm leaves. Major-General Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Commander-in-Chief of Abu Dhabi Police, were cited by Gulf News saying “This is the first step in changing the identity of Abu Dhabi Police and we have started it with the emblem. Today, we have distributed the new badges of Abu Dhabi Police (…) In fact, we wanted to further localize the identity of Abu Dhabi Police giving more features that showcase the culture and tradition of the emirate.” All police members, officers and non-officers will be required to carry the new id cards at all times and produce it when asked by community member during an investigation. The new emblem will also go to all vehicles and uniform during the upcoming months.

New Police Badge

Old Police Badge

Besides the new emblem new badge also features numerous security enhancements which makes it foolproof and impossible to counterfeit. A black, bi-fold wallet carries the card, similar in style to the ones used by the FBI in the United States. Notably the new emblem is free of the United Arab Emirates flag image which is not unusual since Dubai police force emblem is also missing the flag. Again as the police chief mentioned the intent was to make impression of more local affiliation rather than national one which the flag might have suggested in the past.

It’s not unusual to replace the ID badges for law enforcement agency officers. As the document ages the security features once very strong become easier to counterfeit. Just like currency bills that get a refresh once the authorities realize the risk of counterfeit grew too high. At the same time logos or emblems get redesigned if an idea compelling enough crosses the decision maker’s agenda. Just like in the corporate world logo is an important part of the image and old looking logo may suggest that other things among the organization are out of date too. In the times of social media significance perception is performance even among government agencies which technically don’t depend on public opinion especially in the political system governing the emirates.

Additionally lost and stolen identification accumulate over years and raises the risk of criminals using it against the community. While reproducing a law enforcement ID at the level it looks real is usually pretty hard replacing a photograph is a much easier job and often used technique by the impostors. This is one of the reason for using holographic overlay which covers the photo and cannot be separated from the id badge without destroying it. Custom holographic patterns are extremely expensive to develop and the facilities that have capacity to develop them are usually closely monitored.

Abu Dhabi police was formed back in 1957 when the emirate was still under British influence. It started with just 80 members guarding royal family buildings, banks and markets. Today the police in Abu Dhabi employs 12,500 officers and non-officer workforce. They service the usual law enforcement tasks of criminal investigation, order, traffic as well as SWAT like assignments.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/abu-dhabi-police-receive-new-id-badges/

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Artificial Intelligence Bubble vs Reality

Have you heard what they said in the news today or at least recently? The artificial intelligence train has departed already. If you are not on the train you have missed the opportunity or your technology is already outdated. Is it just me or we can hear late nineties World Wide Web bubble 1.0 pumping phase resonating in these statements? Back then the web was supposed to be the next big thing which it actually was except not nearly as big as the size of the speculation investment bubble. That train left, kept speeding up and fell off the cliff leaving many investors with losses that have never been recovered from. Is AI big, bubble or something in between?

Artificial Intelligence concept is much older than the computer age yet no substantial progress has been made those days. The idea of a non-human creation thinking is as old as humankind with the concepts of possessing god powers. Once the matter comes from fantasy closer to more daily practice it proves to be tricky. This brings us to the first fundamental dilemma; do we want to create an artificial counterpart of human brain or rather get a task solved? In which order?

Depending how you look at it the question could be answered in more than one way. While artificial intelligence was established as a separate division of science only in 1956, Alan Turing machine, widely considered as a first computer has its blueprints based on decryption machine that cracked Nazi Germany’s enigma codes back in World War II.

Then came the post WW2 era with a great belief in technology. Rocket science, nuclear explosions development and other achievements in warfare technology during the world conflict set very high expectations for rapid advance. Since it was known by then already that, the brain works using electric impulses the hope was to recreate human mind in the form of an electronic machinery. As it often turns out with high hopes, the reality check result could be pretty hard. Nuclear energy is a great example of this process; over 60 years after the first controlled nuclear reaction we are decommissioning more nuclear power plants than are planned to be built. Nuclear propulsion has never successfully reached beyond military vessels where the cost is never a first factor. Thermonuclear electric power plants remain to be a few years away from being implemented for the past 40 years and a breakthrough does not seem to be in sight. Lunar landing proved to be a great achievement of humanity but also cost prohibitive to be continued at this pace once the military and political goals behind it have been reached. Space shuttle program turned out to be too ambitious and proven deadly when shuttle type turnover time tried to be achieved too aggressively. Was artificial intelligence project fate sealed the same way?

In many ways it actually was but luckily for AI and its enthusiast the patient is far more resilient and hungry for life and the less lucky technology counterparts. One of the more important reasons for that is the fact that no significant progress in rocket or nuclear science can be made in garage setup while substantial advance was secured in these very conditions in the area of computer technology.

Unsurprisingly the focus of 1950s and 60s in the AI field was military oriented. With secured funding and Cold War armament race pressure no potential was to be overlooked. Encouraged by Nazi enigma cracking success the scientist and engineers turned to believe that machine based instant translation from Russian to English was possible. It would have given the US intelligence and military a great advantage over their rival counterparts. While Russian and English have immensely deep differences in grammar and syntax, Noam Chomsky work from the time seemed to be able to help overcome this obstacle. What lied a foundation for the project failure were the common, causal language parts, the phrasal verbs so obvious in every language that many people forget they exist. These disambiguations, while trivial at the human level proved killers for the computers turning the translation job results into jokes and anecdotes fodder. Large funds committed into failed research must have ended the way it did. Spending cuts and many years of promising projects collecting dust on the shelves waiting for funds and talents to pick them up again. In this particular struggle of human against machine the human was a winner but certainly not the men and women behind the project.

We still learn today how difficult this project was. Google Translator, probably the most well-known and one of the most advanced translating solutions is based on the human translation principle. Instead of trying to translate using dictionary it uses a method based on the Rosetta stone. The famous piece of rock was found at the end of 18th century and it contains a decree written in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Greek. The historians’ community considers it one of the most important piece in learning ancient Egyptian writing. Similarly, the Google translator uses big data containing large amounts of human translated documents to find an accurate counterpart for a phrase in another language and still not without errors.

Many well-funded projects of seventies and eighties of the twentieth century failed in similar way to the instant translator fiasco. I do not want to sound like an armchair general but most of these failures follow the same scenario. Expectations have been set stellar to attract and secure funding. Once the research and development started, it was not long until king was found naked. This naturally caused spending cuts and shorter or longer winters within the subject area. Sounds exactly like a speculation bubble, doesn’t it? Maybe except for funding, public vs private.

It may sound by now I am only looking for the failures and setbacks in the process of developing artificial intelligence but instead I want to point out how difficult and complicated the process be. Citing Galileo Galilei ‘All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.’ It is part of the western culture to believe that once something has been achieved it must have been easy to achieve while the reality is quite the opposite. While we all like to celebrate success, paying attention to the disappointments that led the way to that success might be a better forward looking strategy.

Has anything worth mentioning been achieved then in the area of machine mimicking human in rational thinking process? We have certainly seen impressive progress is selected divisions where the progress was not necessarily expected. Scientist and engineers defeated so many times decided to fight back in the areas where general audience is to be impressed. Beating Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion at the time by the computer was headline news. Sure, the skeptics pointed out that the IBM Deep Blue code was modified during the game but still the computer managed to defeat a champion. Moreover, this was just the beginning.

Chess was always considered a geeky math game with its capacity to predict the largest number of future moves as the main advantage of the winner over the loser. Math is the domain of the computers, they talk math so sooner or later the machine had to be able to outrun humans in this discipline. The real challenge would be a synthetic mind that would be able to compete with humans in their native tongue competitions and winning the TV knowledge show Jeopardy was definitely a desirable trophy.

It was the computer giant IBM to pick up the glove again. The beginnings were not very promising however as the idea sounded too gimmick and resembled failed attempts from the past to imitate human reasoning at the higher level of conceptual thinking. Paul Horn, then director of IBM Research, said the project was in its embryonic stage when he left IBM in 2007 http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibm-watson-the-inside-story-of-how-the-jeopardy-winning-supercomputer-was-born-and-what-it-wants-to-do-next/. Yet it only took another 4 years for Watson to win Jeopardy against two champions in 2011. That was one impressive growth from an embryo to an adult in just 4 years. How such an impressive progress has been achieved and how the idea was missed so many times in the past? Well, Rosetta stone again …

The language structures human thinking. If it is not difficult enough that each language or at least language family follows different grammar and syntax it’s also the fact that no human used language is a rigid and predictable as math strings. Human language cannot be translated into math accurately and the computers how we are able to design them can only understand math. Extending computer capacity beyond understanding math attempts all failed miserably in the past. What Watson team has done different is realizing computing engine strengths and weaknesses. Synthesized minds as we know them cannot think like humans but they can memorize and sort developed human thoughts without necessarily understanding them. Just as Labrador breed dogs leading the blinds and understanding over 200 voice commands don’t actually need to understand every action they perform. The goal is to execute an action called.

Memorizing a phone book is an impossible task for an ordinary human but rather a trivial job for even simple system like a phone even from before smartphones age. All that needs to be done to win Jeopardy is to memorize commonly available data, index it properly so it is quickly available and have an algorithm to bring it by formulating an appropriate question. Once the stellar dream of mimicking human mind was abandoned and highly selective activity goal was set the task has become achievable. In addition, it only took 4 years.

Still, wouldn’t it be a waste of resources to spend all these years in order to win a TV quiz? Media attention, sure but this could be achieved much cheaper, especially in tabloid journalism era we are in today. Even giants like IBM is unlikely to do it just for the fun of it and sure, they did not. Watson next target is health care and it is already at work in the area of radiology. Careful selection of this branch of medicine again shows strength of the computers in the opposition of the human weakness. What radiologists do is analyze the X-ray images of human body. From a synthetic brain point of view, it is looking for specific patterns in the ocean of dots, a tedious and eye straining activity for a human vision system. In addition, when it comes to how many reference images a person’s mind can store compared to a database is not even fair as the scale is completely different. When doctor Smith, even if he or she is a devoted radiologist might have seen thousands of images and read about another hundreds in specialized literature the image library that Dr. Watson has in its synthetic mind is counted with millions. Does this mean human radiologist profession faces extinction? Certainly not in my opinion. At the end of the day, it is human health and life we talk here; not to mention professional liability that comes with it. The bottom line is that Watson is a radiologist instant access and always updated knowledge base but not a doctor himself. I would be even surprised that the radiologist population shrinks because of Watson advantage. This particular profession is among the best paid in the industry, as the volume of work is immense. With larger throughput, I would rather expect an increase in medical imaging demand as it stays one of the best way to achieve noninvasive diagnostics.

Are we then at the edge of a new breakthrough in technology where nothing will be the same again? With millions of jobs slashed like phone books and more to come once the AI advances. Well, I would not hold my breath for that. All the mishaps mentioned above along with Dr Watson career path show how complicated the process of synthesizing human mind is. Humanoid robots able to pass Turing test seem galaxies away and will likely to occupy fantasy space of fiction rather than walking your home town streets with people unable to identify them without custom id badges. What I expect is a continuation of what works which helping humans where human capacity falls short of the computer one and being a human is certainly not one of these.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/artificial-intelligence-bubble-vs-reality/

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ID Badges Required After a Sex Offender Scandal

Sexual abuse may seem like never-ending story especially when it comes to education and religious institutions. The truth is however the rate is actually decreasing as the these horrible stories get public attention. Such trend is secured in two main ways, one is deterrence, heavy attention means that an offender is unlikely to run away unpunished even if he or she comes from a position of power because of wealth or authority status. Two, many of these occurrences trigger a change in regulations and procedures. Sadly it’s a similar situation as with the airline industry; harm has to be done in order for new regulations to be introduced.

Warren county, New Jersey, small town of Philipsburg has just been a scene of an incident involving a person with a sex offender record hired to work with youth. Lehighvalleylive reports that Burton James Miller was keeping score in a youth game while was not allowed to. http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf/2017/06/steele_hill_sex_offender.html This happened gainst the parole condition which specified “to refrain from initiating, establishing or maintaining contact with any minor”.

One of the actions to address concerns past the incident surfacing was to require all youth sport volunteers to wear an id badge that positively identifies them and the organization they are with. Identification and transparency are both very important measures in providing safe and abuse-free youth environments. As mentioned above religious and youth organizations remain among high profile targets for sex predators and they allow to deal with young individuals from the position of authority such as leader, coach or spiritual guide. All these functions require certain level of trust in order to be successful with reaching the goals among the minor population. The trust however might turn against the kids and be subject of abuse leading to criminal behaviors and often irrecoverable damages to individual mental health and well being.

Background checks are usually required for most regulated positions among youth leadership positions such as scouting and coaching. Philipsburg case fell through the cracks of interpretations. Keeping a score during a game is not actually a leadership position and doesn’t involve one on one situations with minors. Since it’s a more of a public voluntary function that’s often picked up at hoc and served in front of the public the risk seems minimal. This is most likely the reason that the incident was viewed by some more as a political matter than the actual threat for youth. Also the prosecutor’s office decided against pressing the charges in the case saying “There is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against any member of the organization at this time,”.

Parents remained alerted and concerned about the situation however. While the prosecutor office may not have found enough evidence to proceed with a charge an incident might have had potential to result in a crime. Since most coaching positions require background checks that would obviously reveal any sex related misconducts potential predators may seek another way to get closer to the youth. Voluntarily keeping the score in a minor sport game is indeed a low risk event when it comes to a sex abuse. It almost always occurs in front of the parents, guardians and strangers while sex offense incidents usually take place in a secluded space. The concern is however that such innocent behavior might be just the beginning of the problem. Let’s assume a potential offender keeps the score for an extended period of time, maybe more than a season. In such time a coach might change, maybe even more than once and the perfect stranger score keeper becomes more familiar with the minors all of the sudden. While remaining stealth in terms of background check a potential sex predator might get dangerously close to those who are vulnerable so dismissing parents and community concerns seem premature and not well thought in this case.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/id-badges-required-after-a-sex-offender-scandal/

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Why Your Student Should Have a Custom ID Card

Most schools around the nation have started using school identification cards as a means of safety and security. Identification cards are being used across a level of schools from collages to elementary schools. We’ll go over some of the growing concerns in terms of safety and how using identification cards can help mitigate some of the dangers. Additionally, I’ll go over some tips on the kind of ID cards that make the most sense as well as what information that should be included on a custom identification card.

One of the first growing concerns in public schools are school shootings and their frequency seems to be on the rise. During an emergency like this, one of the first things school administrators try to do is get accountability of everyone including students and staff. This can be especially difficult when dealing with small children. They can become lost or get misdirected during the chaos that ensues during the evacuation process.

Once they have become separated from their group, it can become incredibly difficult to find them. Even if they are with another group of children the staff member in charge may have a hard time knowing where the child belongs. This can mitigated by children having custom ID cards with them. It’s common to find students with ID cards at colleges and universities but it would be smart if that practice was implemented at all levels of schools. I used a shooting incident as an example but any emergency that would result in a chaotic evacuation process could produce the same problems.

Another area that student identification cards could help is in the event of a medical emergency. Throughout the past couple of years, schools have faced quite a few challenging events from shootings, other types of violence, and tornadoes. During these kind of events it is possible that students could get seriously injured. Some life threatening injuries require immediate attention from qualified personnel.

This is where a student ID could really help. Custom student ID cards can have any important information added to them. For instance, for a medical emergency, you may have blood type and any allergies to medication. They could also contain emergency contact information. Normally all this would take quite a bit of time to find out, however with an ID card, that information could be assessable instantly.

If you are a public or private school, it just makes sense to utilize customized ID cards for your students. Even if you are just a concerned parent, this may be information you want for you child to have on them at all times. QuickIDCard.com offers the perfect solution to increase the safety of your child or students. You can customize an ID card to contain whatever important information you want. You can include blood type, name, address, emergency contact info, allergies and their photo.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/why-your-student-should-have-a-custom-id-card/

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Lesson learned from WannaCry

WannaCry ransomware attack managed to catch a lot of attention back in May due to large coverage and prominent targets inside health care organizations, freight and transportation vendors. Other than high impact it looks like fairly common ransomware cyber-attack. A piece of malicious code is executed on a target computer, valuable files get encrypted and a message is displayed with instructions on how to get the files de-crypted and accessible again by paying a ransom.

One thing that remains unclear is the attacker’s intent. Large target base means massive attention and high probability of the scheme backfiring assuming that collecting highest possible ransom amount was indeed the goal. Because of this many commentators contested the idea that money making was the primary purpose of the operation or even the goal at all. The reported $130k ransom paid in total is in not an impressive amount for such a large scale attack which together with the fact that only 3 fixed Bitcoin account were attributed to the attack further supports the notion of non-monetary goal.

Some speculated that the United States National Security Agency or US Government in general was the target. While not directly attacked by the software they might have been an indirect target and the purpose was to damage public trust and image reputation of the government agencies. There are two factors supporting this argument. First is the NSA non-disclosure of the underlying vulnerability in Windows SMB (Server Message Block) file access protocol which was critical for the malware to work. The other one is related to the fact that the NSA allegedly lost control of one of the attack tools called EternalBlue. Based on these two factors a conclusion could be drawn that the NSA and other government agencies seek vulnerabilities in computer software, develop tools to exploit them to eventually spy on innocent people. While being a long shot it matches certain notions of government as a solely malicious and oppressive force which often get viral.

All this may sound like the computer fate was sealed once targeted. Except it’s not true. Microsoft Corporation, the Windows operating system family vendor issued a critical patch back on March 14, nearly 2 months before the attack took place giving it more than enough time to update the operating system where the patching process has been managed properly. It’s worth to mention that the operating system patching process in larger organizations is a little bit more complicated and can’t be fully automated as it is on personal computers where you can just set it to install the updates automatically and forget about it.

Since patching, which essentially is replacing system files with newer versions requires some processes, services or entire system restart it needs to be done in a coordinated way in order to avoid productivity loss. Additionally each patch means a change in the infrastructure which needs to be properly executed by running a pilot patching pass and verifying functionality after the patch. This process could only be automated to a certain degree and could be resource intensive. As the attack result shows many large organizations failed to patch their computers in time.

The lesson learned from the attack is simple. When a software vendor you’re using issues a critical patch they mean it. Security comes ahead of comfort of not restarting the computer unless specified otherwise. Otherwise your organization risks the safety of the operations and public image dents by earning id badges saying ‘relaxed IT security applied here’.

  from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/lesson-learned-from-wannacry/

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Make Your Business More Secure with ISOProx II Badges and Cards

Utilizing modern access control devices for your business is a smart idea. One of the newest emerging technologies is the use of ISOProx II id cards or badges. More businesses and government agencies are now using proximity card technology to monitor and control access to facilities and yours can too.

Most businesses would prefer a system in place that can control access to its facilities but the cost that was associated with the id cards and badges was too much to bear for many small businesses. Good news is that the prices on that equipment is much less these days and the price of ISOProx II id cards are much more affordable too. One of the reasons why is the methods for creating and printing the badges have come down in the past few years. Enhanced manufacturing practices have help reduce the overall cost of the raw materials that are used. That savings has made it possible for small business to secure their facilities.

One industry that could benefit from ISO PRO II id badges are storage facilities. For most storage businesses, the primary way of gaining access if from a pin number or a key. Pin numbers are much less secure as pin numbers can be shared and spread and keys can be easily copied.

These less secure methods increase the number of unauthorized people that may have access to your facility. If you still use a key then you find yourself having to have your lock re-keyed multiple times which gets expensive.

With a proximity card system in place, only the person that has the access card can have get into the facility. This can greatly reduce the chances that someone with less than honorable intensions learning someone’s pin or copying a key. Like with a pin number system, you can also allow or remove access instantly using a HID system.

While storage facilities are just one instance that a small business can benefit from ISOProx II id badges, there are many uses and benefits throughout the small business community. Any business that needs a cost-effective means to restrict access to controlled areas should consider using proximity cards.

The cards can be customized to match your business’ styling and colors. You can add any photos or logos you want and the layout of information can be customized to your exact requirement. Design and processes developed by Quickidcard.com have made the whole process easy and very affordable. Visit https://www.quickidcard.com today and design your own custom id card or badge.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/make-your-business-more-secure-with-isoprox-ii-badges-and-cards/

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ID Badge Options and Advantages to Help Your Business

High Quality ID Badge and ID Card Options To Consider

There is a lot more that goes into producing high quality and highly secure identification cards and badges. The post is intended to highlight some of the industry standards that many companies require for their identification needs. These are things like, HID ISOProx II RfID cards and badges, durable PVC that is at least 50 mils thick, and holographic over lays. All these thing matter when you are considering identification badges for your employees. Additionally, QuickIDCard.com offers all these options at some very affordable rates and are a perfect fit for businesses of any size.

Here are some highlights of our options and their benefits:

CLEAR OVERLAY ON CUSTOM ID BADGES

Clear overlay on custom ID badges refers to the process of coating the surface of PVC with a layer of protective and clear laminate. Our high quality ID card printers are capable of laminating ID cards right after applying print. Clear overlay on custom ID badges provides a wide range of advantages including the following.

It Makes Cards Last Longer

Laminated cards are usually thicker compared to non laminated cards. The extra thickness helps protect cards from various physical damages such as cracking and bending. Laminated cards also help protect surfaces of the cards since water and dirt are kept off of the surface of the cards while still keeping the cards visible. This kind of protection enables cards last longer.

It makes cards look professional

Although the main purpose of ID cards is to identify wearers, it’s also important to ensure that cards projects professional look especially at a job site.

Keep in mind that a badge that you issue can be the first thing that a guest sees after signing in with the receptionist. Having a great ID card is a great deal while having a damaged ID card is definitely a deal breaker.

Laminating employees ID cards will keep their cards looking professional just like the day they came out of the printer thereby ensuring a professional look for all employees.

All our cards are made of standard vinyl to protect against water damage, dirt and scratches.

Why laminate your card?

Laminated cards last longer compared to non laminated cards thereby helping you save money in the long run.

Your card will be protected from bending, water damage, scratches, dirt and cracks.

It offers durable layer of protection.

The card will be able to tolerate heat.

Your card will be protected from chemicals and daily wears and tears.

We offer different sizes and thickness of laminating pouches thereby enabling you protect different sizes of cards.

HOLOGRAPHIC OVERLAY

Holographic overlay is a thin adhesive laminate sheet applied to the surface of an ID card. The thin sheet appear totally clear at some angles while logo or custom text appear by reflecting light at some angles. The main benefit of Holographic overlay is to prevent ID card from being copied. When a scammer recreates an ID card with your credentials, it will be very easy to tell it’s fake.

HOW HOLOGRAPHIC OVERLAY WORKS

Holographic overlay is just like applying a sticker. Each and every Holographic overlay comes with a tab at the very end thereby making it extra easy to separate overlay from a liner. Before applying overlay, you should make sure that the card doesn’t have any dust and debris. Simply place overlay onto the card and smooth it out. That’s it. No heating required.

Why use Holographic overlay?

The reasons of using Holographic overlay are as follows.

Security

Holographic overlay is widely used for security purpose. It is impossible to duplicate Holograms and this is the main reason why it has become an important part in government and commercial security programs.

Highly valued

Since Holographic overlay have impressive appearance, it is more likely that many will bring them to quick notice.

High retention

ID cards with holographic overlay can be treasured for a long period of time which is not the case with cards that have no holographic overlay.

Benefits of Holographic overlay

The cannot be copied/they combat counterfeiting

They cannot be manufactured cheaply from scratch

They provide hidden identity

They add greatly to clients perception of quality

They increase brand sales

Different applications

Holographic overlay can be applied to a wide range of products such as.

Parking passes

Company ID cards

Driver’s license

Membership Cards

ID badge

Holographic overlay is normally considered as the easiest and the quickest way to add visual security to an existing card.

50 MIL THICK ID CARDS

ID cards exist in a wide range of sizes and thicknesses. Each and every type of ID card has specific uses and functions. Dimensions normally consists of three measures namely thickness, length and width. Thickness is measured in millimeters (mil) and ranges from 10 to 50mil.

The thickness of a standard card which is used for almost all ID cards and credit cards is 30mil. Compared to 30mil cards, 10mil cards are less flexible, less expensive and less durable. 10mil cards are normally used for business cards and for temporary badges. Standard ID cards are commonly used as student ID cards, attendance tracking and library cards.

50 mil cards on the other hand offer added thickness which protects against bending and cracking. Our standard 30 mil PVC cards which have the same thickness as credit cards are rigid enough for use in most applications.

Our reliable and friendly experts are always available to help you choose your preferred thickness.

HID ISOPROX II RFID CARDS

ISOPROX II card offers great security since it allows users create unique code sequences. It is made up of a flexible and strong composite material resistant to cracking and breaking and comes with a lifetime warranty. It is mainly considered as a cost effective way to add security to an organization.

Key features

Lifetime warranty.

Same size and thickness just like a credit card.

Quality surface for graphics which is already optimized for Photo ID printing.

For more demanding wear and tear environments, the card is available in standard PVC construction as well as composite PVC.

Benefits

The card offers proximity technology and photo identification capability on one access control card.

The card can be easily produced with visual security as well as counterfeiting features such as custom logo and custom text.

The cards can easily withstand high temperatures.

QuickIDCard.com is committed to providing industry leading technologies in the ID card and ID badge arena. We offer a full range of industry standard printing mediums to meet any need and level of security. As always, there’s never a minimum order and you can customize your ID card anyway you want with our online id card maker. Learn more about our ID Card options – or Start Designing Your Card Today.

from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/id-badge-options-and-advantages-to-help-your-business/

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The Importance Of Medical ID Badges – Why You Should Wear One

The Importance of having an Emergency Medical ID

Nobody wants to suffer from injuries and diseases, but sometimes they are inevitable parts of life. Even the most health-conscious person you know is never free from risk of medical conditions. Some conditions are recurrent and it requires continuous treatments to manage the symptoms. For example, a person with diabetes or asthma may not fully recover from the condition, but there are treatments to help manage the condition. As long as the person is taking proper medications, the diseases should not bring difficulties to everyday activities. However, there is always a possibility that the person forgets to take the prescribed drugs or simply not in the position to receive treatments.

There are unexpected events even during perfectly planned day for example getting stuck in the middle of nowhere due to a broken down car, eating certain foods which contain allergens, natural disasters, traffic jam, etc. Patients of mental disorders also often have difficulties remembering the name of medications they should take, proper dosages, and all other parameters required for healthcare practitioners to provide the right treatment. Some conditions can put patients to life-threatening situations if not immediately treated, and this is why an emergency medical ID is necessary.

Your Medical Identification Card Requirements

In simple words, an emergency medical ID is just like any other form identification card but it specifically contains information about the wearer’s medical conditions or medication allergies. Medical identification cards can also include emergency contacts, food allergies, current prescribed drugs, and blood type. Some IDs are in the form of jewelry such as a bracelet or can worn around the neck like a military style dog tags, with all the necessary information engraved on the materials used. It can be in the form of card as well; this is probably the best in terms of readability. Emergency personnel like EMT’s are trained to look for medical identification cards. If you become unconscious, they can provide valuable lifesaving information.

The main purpose of medical ID is to act as a basic source of medical-related information in case of emergency. In such situation, readability is more important than anything else; anybody of the first-responder team does not care if the information is engraved on a shiny piece of metal or on a fancy-colored silicone. The most important thing is that the identification is clear, concise, and readable. For this reason, it is important to consider the style of identification and the material it is made of. High quality custom emergency ID cards are made from high grade PVC and printed in ink that doesn’t fade easily. They usually will have a special coating that will help prevent wear.

In another scenario, a first-responder may not onsite yet when a patient collapses. During a situation where a patient requires immediate medical assistance, the first to provide help is most likely another person within close proximity. The best things this person can do are to call for emergency help and explain the situation as clearly as possible. One of the first items to look for is emergency medical ID. Jewelry can get overlooked, but an identification card is hard to miss, especially when worn in the right place for example as part of tag necklace. Emergency responder can even instruct the caller to provide first-aid, but it is only possible when responder knows the specifics of patient’s pre-existing medical conditions.

Another thing to consider is that a medical ID card has more space to contain a lot more information than a small bracelet. Written descriptions on a piece of paper with contrasting color also help improve readability to a great extent.

Who Should Wear Medical ID?

The short answer is anyone who has chronic medical condition. Some diseases which may require patients to wear emergency ID card include:

  Allergies (food, drugs, animals, etc.)

Hypertension

Pulmonary conditions such as asthma

Anemia

Diabetes

Breathing disorder

Blood disorder

Memory impairment

Stroke risk

Mental disorder

Children with special needs or participants of clinical trials also need to wear medical ID.

Do Emergency First Responders Check for Medical ID?

Paramedics do check for medical ID. In fact, it is part of the practical exam before they get certification. It is worth mentioning that most paramedics will check the pulse before they do anything else, so wearing a medical ID bracelet increases the chance of them finding the information. Referring back to the aforementioned issue with readability, bracelet is easy to find but readability is often poor. Tag necklace comprised of lanyard and card is also good idea since this will be easily noticeable. Another good option is to wear the ID card on a belt clip.

Custom ID

In case one of your family members suffers from medical conditions which require emergency medical ID, you can even make a custom card based on existing templates. Please understand that this card does not have to be fancy-looking; your main concern should be on readability and completeness of information.

A custom medical ID card can list information on both sides, so there should be enough space to include everything that matters including but not limited to current drugs in use, emergency contact, pre-existing conditions, as well as basic info such as name, photograph, and address.

Accessories

 If you decide to use a card rather than an engraved metal bracelet or dog tag, make sure the card is well-protected by water-resistant cover and made of high grade PVC. An emergency ID card put inside a lamination cover made of clear material is good idea. Some ID card and badge holders also features holes so you can easily attach it to lanyard. A hole can be made in the ID card so that you can attach the lanyard through the holder and card for a more secure connection.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that emergency medical ID cards are an important personal item and should be used at all times by people with medical conditions or any condition that a first responder should be aware of. Additionally, the ID card must contain concise information so first responders can provide proper treatment in case of emergency. Finally, be sure that you secure your ID card to yourself with use of a strong lanyard and attach it to the ID card and pouch to prevent it from being lost in an accident.

Create your own custom emergency id card at www.quickidcard.com

  from QuickIDCard.com Blog http://www.quickidcard.com/newsroom/the-importance-of-medical-id-badges-why-you-should-wear-one/

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Increase Customer Confidence With Custom Made Identification Badges

Allowing your customers to feel secure and safe is a great way to increase business. Many businesses are using id badges to help aid in security and safety for their employees and customers. This is especially essential in industrial sectors which need a service provider to travel to a consumer’s property or a place of business. Home invasions are on a boost in quite a few communities and one way these criminals gain entry is by pretending to be a service professional of some type. To be able to make your customer’s feel secure and also to aid in increasing awareness regarding your enterprise is by utilizing personnel id badges along with enforcing your employees put them on.

Additionally an identification badge or ID card of some kind can and are going to improve customer assurance, furthermore, it aids in advertising your organization and providing it some business identity. While your business increases, you will in all probability have more and more service providers out working in the public. Workers which will don your corporation’s i.d. provide further publicity and convey awareness to your enterprise and its particular expert services.

You can help secure your place of business with ID badges as well. A lot of times people are coming in and going and it is hard to keep track of people. You make your employees more recognizable with ID badges that have their photo on them. This will help to distinguish who is an employee and who is a potential client or customer. Also, customers will be able to quickly identify an employee which helps with consumer confidence. It can also help prevent a customer from getting frustrated because they cannot find a staff member that works in the store.

Your small business can make the most of identification cards by providing read ahead information to consumers plus an image of the service provider that will be visiting a residence or some other place of work. The clients then can match that photo together with the service provider’s face and picture on the service provider’s identification badge which should also be customized to mirror your organization’s branding. This is a great procedure to add a high quality photo for your company and get it done for a reasonable expense.

In cases any time the picture isn’t sent, maybe in an unexpected emergency scenario, the identification badge your employee will be wearing should be able to provide some level of comfort and security once they get there and may also boost the likelihood they are able to tackle the problem faster compared to what they would have otherwise. What’s more, it, allows buyers to make note of the worker’s name as reference to make any comments back to the business in terms of the quality of the work which has been done

As i’ve already explained, security badges which happen to be donned to enable them to be easily noticed provide brand interest. It is not uncommon for an individual to see an id badge from a staff member and inquire about several problems and it is actually demonstrated that it helps with building brand awareness as well as customer confidence. Not only from a safety and security point of view but potential buyers tend to be willing to have business dealings with a business that appears to be incredibly professional.

Custom ID Badges are very inexpensive and they can offer a lot of value to your business. Consumer perception and confidence goes a long way. Of all the forms of branding and marketing, custom id badges are most likely the cheapest way of increasing business. Whether it is from a business decision or a safety decision, it is a good idea either way to do whatever you can to increase your customer’s confidence.

Add an additional level of safety and security for your organization by making use of serial numbers on your custom company badges. This is possible whenever you obtain personalized identification badges online. You can create them with serialized numbers, bar codes, and even QR codes for simple digital verification. This enables you to combine your badges with electronic entry systems in addition to computerized locks. Several government buildings utilize these today to manage access, observe who is coming and going and what time. It may also stop an active shooter scenario. You are able to immediately revoke a worker’s entry rights digitally in a central location. The speed for which you can certainly control individual personnel access might help save lives.

No matter what the usage and the rationale, it’s really a good idea for virtually any company or business type to implement identification badges of one form or another. Online services like http://quickidcard.com will offer an affordable option of having custom id badges made for all your employees. Your business also has a choice of obtaining equipment that could design and print ID cards for large businesses with plenty of personnel, this could be the cheapest alternative. The choices exist, it’s just up to business owners to take advantage of those alternatives and put a safety system in place that enforces the use of i.d. badges.

from Quick Id Card https://quickidcard1.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/increase-customer-confidence-with-custom-made-identification-badges/

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Crucial Tips to Reduce Overhead Costs in Small Business

Overhead costs are a reality even for small scale businesses and to manage profit, it is important to keep an eye on them. Read the following write up to know more…

Those who’re trying their luck in the field of entrepreneurship, and are already doing some small businesses, must be aware of a decently vague term, called overhead cost. Though this term may appear vague inherently, it can have a great impact in saving you some precious money when you’re running your business.

Stated in simple accounting terms, overhead costs are business expenses, that are not directly involved in contributing to the profit, but they’re vital to run your business. This may include anything like office space, office stationery, office furniture, cafeteria, etc. For small businesses, extra expenses matter a lot, because capital investment is limited and so maximizing profit and preventing loss is the only key to survival, especially in times of harsh economies and destabilized markets.

Guide to Cutting Your Operating Costs in Business

Regular expenses that are not directly involved in producing goods or providing services are known as overhead costs. It is obvious that you can’t keep your overhead expenses zero. Let us take one example. Electricity is a basic need in the offices, and so you can’t prevent employees from using it! Yes, you can manage electricity usage effectively, and even ask employees to use resources in the office premises frugally. This will in turn lower the overhead costs for your business, saving huge resources of money. Here are some more tips to manage the extra costs.

Enlist Your Business Expenses

Starting a business is not easy, and if you have been in the business world for sometime, you must be aware of the fact that it is a daily battle you need to fight to survive. Hence, you got to manage your overhead costs and be proactive in listing all your business expenses. Now, what you list requires business judgment and understanding. To put things in perspective, consider the fact that you own a small printing press, where the need of computers and electricity is essentially 24 x 7, and so you can’t list electricity as your overhead cost. Some tangible overhead costs in business field are as follows: Taxation, audits and penalties that, changes in government rules and laws can bring. To maintain efficiency of employees and provide them all comforts to work, known as ‘downtime costs’, you need to be willing to spend some extra money.

Any changes in bureaucratic and regulatory changes. Any legal battles and disputes that can result in some court room cases.

Natural disasters and economic downturn, that are inevitable, can cause you to spend some money on the damage done.

In cases of theft or damage of products, you got to pay the extra money. Any unplanned and unexpected development in infrastructure of the building. After you have enlisted your monthly overhead expenses wisely, it is time to introspect where you can lessen your expenses. Refer to your industry standards and inquire with companies of the same business, as to what parameters they categorize as ‘overhead costs’. Knowing what exactly constitutes these costs, can help firms to come up with cost cutting ideas and in turn save resources.

Do Some Math

One of the vital aspects of managing these costs is that, you should calculate two things viz.

Proportion of the costs compared to sales (Overhead cost ratio). Overhead cost as a percentage of labor cost or human resource put in. The overhead cost ratio equals to the ratio of overhead costs and sales of a firm depending on monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly basis. Overhead cost ratio just like margins, is used to understand how the profits of a firm are changing. You can also calculate overhead cost as a percent of sales. For example, if the monthly revenue of your firm is $100,000 and your overhead costs per month is $25,000, then the overhead cost percentage over sales is, (25000/100,000)x100 = 25%.

On similar lines, you can calculate how efficiently your resources are being utilized in running your business. To do this calculation, simply divide overhead costs by total labor cost and multiply the result by 100 to express it as a percentage value. The lower the percentage, the higher is the efficiency of the resources being utilized. You may also hire a professional chartered accountant for managing your finances.

The above tips for saving money on overhead costs, can help small business owners and entrepreneurs gain a competitive business advantage. Moreover, the saved money can indirectly be invested in increasing product quality and to price the products more competitively. Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/overhead-costs-for-small-businesses.html

from Quick Id Card https://quickidcard1.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/crucial-tips-to-reduce-overhead-costs-in-small-business/